1.6 Update Meadowlands is for Joja Co. - and also terrible

[mockington]

When Meadowlands Farm Layout was introduced, i was obviously excited for it. Upon getting a bug on release i didn't really follow up on playing that farm, but now i did, and i have to say: i am underwhelmed. The starter coop is a nice touch and a quality of life gift. When selecting this farm, there is a note that it is not great for farming, but great for animals. That, in my opinion, is not true. Sure, you have the blue grass from the getgo, but that only speeds up a process that is achievable on every other farm too. So once you have your coop filled and every animal at max, there is no benefit to blue grass anymore - unless you sell your animals, and thats where i keep thinking this farm is a joja-style farm. you raise animals, you sell them, repeat. you are part of the machine. put many auto-feeders and auto petters in your coops, sell the animals, thats your best way to manage this farm. add on top that not only you cant grow as much, the large belt of green ground cannot spawn grass for your animals - so not only is it bad for farming, you also grow less food for your animals. this could be easily fixed by making it possible to grow grass on the green tiles, as opposed to only on the brown patches. it would limit your growth of veggies, but make it easier to put in pastures. this way, the farm layout is extremely limited. that way, the classic farm, beach farm, corner farm and wilderness farm are all better suited to animals than the meadowlands, and they are also more usable as a whole. the only ones where meadowlands would be superior is forest and river.

also, i think rebalancing the rancher perk with that update wouldve been a great idea. the way it is now, meadowlands i more of a handicap than a special animal farm.

am i alone with this opinion?

 

[HaleyRocks]

Wrong. Blue grass affects (positively) the quality of animal produced items... Other than the slight happiness boost/advantage, of course. It also looks nicer. And last but not least, you can fit pretty much anything and everything in its illustrious space/map-design; you can even leave animals as an afterthought if you wish!

 

[mockington]

According to the wiki, what you say isnt true. there doesnt seem to be a boost on animal product quality, but i just learned that animals eat half as much of it as they do with normal grass. that would actually boost it to a comparable size of 4000 tiles of grass, making it honestly better.

 

[HaleyRocks]

If they gain twice the friendship, they produce better quality items faster. Technically, my statement isn't wrong, under that one certain scope...

Quoted from wiki: "Animals eating Blue Grass gain twice as much friendship as from eating normal Grass (16 instead of 8)"

 

[mockington]

AKCHUALLY

 

[Yogurt_The_Cow]

I would never sell my animals! At lest not my very first ones. Sure I would sell the animal if I named it [364] or something. I love my animals! Yes a auto petter is useful but I love being able to interact with my babies everyday. I would like an auto grabber because it is helpful but not an auto petter. You will miss out on quality time with your animals if you go this way. I have a horse, 3 chickens, 1 duck, a cow, and a goat. I love spending quality time with what feels like my only stardew family (at the moment.)

 

[Yogurt_The_Cow]

In the very early versions of the game you could slaughter the animals soooo….

 

[FilthyGorilla]

It's a valid criticism of the farm, but you have to really tame expectations of farm 'perks' in accordance to other farms

Hilltop sacrifices about 60% of the farming space for a river and tiny quarry
Riverlands sacrifices the same 60% of farming space for pretty bad river fish which you can fish all over the 2 biggest, closest maps to the farm (the town and cindersap)
Wilderness does basically nothing different since 1.5 as farm spawning on new save is just a toggle when creating said save for any farm type
four corners (within context of singleplayer) just has really watered down versions of already bad perks
Forest loses like 70% of tillable farmland for some hardwood which isn't useless in all honesty, though is pretty overshadowed in 1.6
Beach is just larger with a less continuous farmland, less tillable soil, and only 200 sprinklerable tiles

So as you can see, most of the choice in farms comes down to pure aesthetic choice, which meadowlands isn't lacking (outside of looking moderately modded for some like myself who are used to the rather bland 1.0/1.1 farms). It barely sacrifices anything for what's objectively the best or second best perk, still has like 2000 tillable tiles and like 3000 total tiles and the only mild sacrifice is the tillable tiles are arranged slightly annoyingly which is nothing vs the drawbacks of other farms for similar or worse perks.

 

[riklaunim]

Meadowlands is good if you want to spam coops or barns. It can have a good layout of grassland/tillable soil to put a lot of those next to tillable soil with grass. 3-4 coops with first upgrades pretty much give more income in mayo than mid-size quality sprinkler crops rush typically for optimized playthrough. It's harder to scale up due to machine count requirements but you can also branch out into mushroom logs and have a forest part on your farm.

 

[MogBeoulve]

I think Beach is overall better for farm animals (since you can eventually craft blue grass starter), but Meadowlands lets you get right to petting your little chicks, and takes the pressure off of you to raise enough for that first coop.

 

[Benhimself]

Wilderness does basically nothing different since 1.5 as farm spawning on new save is just a toggle when creating said save for any farm type

Technically at high combat levels Wilderness Farm summons Iridium Golems which don't appear on the other maps even when you hit that toggle or invoke the shrine. They're like fun little murder pinatas to bonk on your way back to bed!

To me a large part of the farm benefits isn't what you get endgame, it's what you get early. Hilltop gives you a steady trickle of minerals without having to walk all the way to the mine before you get a horse or the minecarts. Forest Farm gives you replenishable Hardwood with only a copper axe instead of needing the steel one (and again a much shorter walk than going down to the secret woods). Before you have a fully upgraded backpack and storage chests everywhere being able to fish right next to your shipping container in Riverlands is actually pretty solid, especially those year one spring rainy day catfish sessions. Etc, etc.

But also, yeah, aesthetics and vibes are honestly the most important factor in farm choice.

 

[MogBeoulve]

Technically at high combat levels Wilderness Farm summons Iridium Golems which don't appear on the other maps even when you hit that toggle or invoke the shrine. They're like fun little murder pinatas to bonk on your way back to bed!

To me a large part of the farm benefits isn't what you get endgame, it's what you get early. Hilltop gives you a steady trickle of minerals without having to walk all the way to the mine before you get a horse or the minecarts. Forest Farm gives you replenishable Hardwood with only a copper axe instead of needing the steel one (and again a much shorter walk than going down to the secret woods). Before you have a fully upgraded backpack and storage chests everywhere being able to fish right next to your shipping container in Riverlands is actually pretty solid, especially those year one spring rainy day catfish sessions. Etc, etc.

But also, yeah, aesthetics and vibes are honestly the most important factor in farm choice.

murder pinatas are my favorite phrase of the day, thank you eternally for this thought

 

[FilthyGorilla]

Technically at high combat levels Wilderness Farm summons Iridium Golems which don't appear on the other maps even when you hit that toggle or invoke the shrine. They're like fun little murder pinatas to bonk on your way back to bed!

To me a large part of the farm benefits isn't what you get endgame, it's what you get early. Hilltop gives you a steady trickle of minerals without having to walk all the way to the mine before you get a horse or the minecarts. Forest Farm gives you replenishable Hardwood with only a copper axe instead of needing the steel one (and again a much shorter walk than going down to the secret woods). Before you have a fully upgraded backpack and storage chests everywhere being able to fish right next to your shipping container in Riverlands is actually pretty solid, especially those year one spring rainy day catfish sessions. Etc, etc.

But also, yeah, aesthetics and vibes are honestly the most important factor in farm choice.

Yes of course, the benefits are definitely aimed at that early game play, even if they're only useful to varying degrees. My main point was just that in the overarching scheme of picking out a farm, it's down to pretty much whatever look or layout you like the best or want to work around

 

[sameperson_differentfont]

Like others said, all farms have their benefits and downfalls and it just depends on the person and if they think the positives outweigh the negatives. I think it's great that all the farms are diverse and everyone can pick and choose based on their preferences. Personally, I agree that meadowlands isn't the best but it's so unique compared to the others and it's really fun!